Erica Miller @togianphotog - The Saratogian: Racing at Saratoga Race Course has expanded from 24 to 30 to 40 days in the past decade. Saratoga may have reached the saturation point with the increase of date. Attendance has declined almost 25 percent the past 10 years, which has left plenty of empty seats along the rail and in the grandstand.

SARATOGA SPRINGS >> When the New York Racing Association decided to increase ticket prices at Saratoga Race Course for the first time in about 10 years, there were both reasons to do it and fears from some racing fans of what the affect would be for the historic track.

The process of finding out will begin today when the opening day attendance and handle are released late this afternoon.

The price increases — general admission fees rose from $3 to $5 while clubhouse admission jumped from $5 to $8 — represent a relatively small dollar amount ($2-$3) when compared to ticket prices of many other sporting events. Percentage-wise, however, general admission is 67 percent more expensive and clubhouse admission increased about 60 percent.

“We had not changed our prices in over 10 years,” said NYRA CEO Chris Kay “What other business do you know of, that is still in business that have not increased their prices in the last 10 years? I can’t think of any. At the same time our costs here at Saratoga went up.”

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John Hendrickson, the husband of Marylou Whitney and one of the most well-known faces at the meet, did not support the increase when it was proposed last winter. He echoed his statements a week before the Saratoga meeting began.

“My philosophy is I’m not for price increases for people to come and bet,” Hendrickson said. “I think it should be free. The general premise of paying to bet — we have a lot of competition; we have to realize that.”

Patrons who expect to visit the race course more than six times will get the best value by purchasing a Saratoga Season Pass. Thanks to a partnership with Stewart’s Shops, fans have bought more than three times as many season passes to the 2014 meeting — 4,631 as of Wednesday morning — than they did the entire 2013 season — about 1,400.

With the positive season pass sales and other upgrades to the Saratoga fan experience, such as more than 700 new flat screen televisions in the backyard and other areas and better Wifi coverage, Kay expects the same number of fans to visit the Spa this season as last.

If there are, it will buck a trend of declining attendance at the race course for about the past 10 years. Even last year’s well promoted Saratoga 150 celebration, which marked the 150th anniversary of the first Saratoga meet, did not attract as many patrons as the 2012 season.

“The number of people who come as tourists, for those of you that know my background I worked in Orlando for many years, you pay far more for a hotel room, you pay far more for your dinner at night for the ticket to come in and enjoy the full day,” Kay said. “I think that we’ll see the same number of people we had in the past that came in from Boston or from Buffalo and the modest price increase will not have an impact.”

The new prices are just one example of many moves to help NYRA move toward its mandated goal to be on solid financial footing before being sold to a private entity in the future, Kay said.

That means turning a profit without revenues from video lottery terminals.

“For a period of 13 years we had operation deficit, including 2013 when we had a $13.1 million deficit (not including VLT money),” Kay said. “We worked very hard since leaving here in Saratoga last year to create a balanced budget, one that would create a small profit or surplus

“As a result of some very hard work I’m very pleased to tell you that despite an awful winter we are on track to have a budget surplus in 2014. I recognize that may not be the most important thing to the average fan but it is important as we plan our sustainability going forward.”

What the average fan does care about is watching quality races featuring many of the best horses, jockeys and trainers in the nation. Those are things the Spa has in spades every year.

“Saratoga is still an experience,” Hendrickson said. “Gambling is one thing, horse racing is still the beauty, the pageantry, the flair. There’s a lot more to horse racing that just gambling. Saratoga is so iconic it’s going to survive but we have to protect it and get better. I think Chris Kay is doing that. I think he’s doing a very good job.”